Understanding past perfect continuous tense

Without verb tenses, it would be difficult to communicate when something happened. The past perfect continuous tense is an important verb tense that you’ve likely used before without realizing it.

What is the past perfect continuous tense?

The past perfect continuous tense, also referred to as the past perfect progressive, is a verb tense that describes an action that began in the past and continued for a period of time before it ended. The structure of the past perfect continuous is simple. To use this verb tense, writers must use the phrase “had been” before the present participle of a verb. In other words, you need to use “had been” + a verb with its -ing ending.

Past perfect continuous tense examples

Use these examples to help you understand the past perfect continuous tense:

• I had been walking my dog at 5:00 PM until my schedule changed.

In this sentence, “had been walking” demonstrates the past continuous tense. The ongoing action in the past was habitually walking their dog at 5:00 PM, which ended when their schedule changed.

• Stacey had been working at the school for five years before she switched careers.

“Had been working” is the past perfect continuous tense in this sentence. The ongoing action in the past was that Stacey was working at a school. This action ended when she entered a new career.

• We had been renting the house every summer until it was destroyed in the hurricane.

“Had been renting” is the past perfect continuous tense in this sentence. The ongoing action in the past was renting the house every summer, and this action ended when the house was destroyed.

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Creating contractions with the past perfect continuous tense

You can also create contractions with the past perfect progressive. For example, you can write, “They’d been” instead of “they had been.” Here are more examples of the past perfect continuous tense with contractions:

• They’d been training for the marathon.
• You’d been getting up early.
• I’d been eating salads for lunch every day.
• We’d been on the road for hours.
• He’d been working nonstop.

Creating negative sentences with the past perfect continuous tense

You can also use the past perfect continuous tense to create negative sentences. To create a negative sentence using the past perfect continuous tense, just add “not” after “had.” Here are some examples of negative statements with the past perfect continuous tense:

• She had not been dining there.
• They had not been sleeping.
• I had not been working hard.
• He had not been playing soccer.

You can even create negative statements in the past perfect continuous with contractions. Here are a few examples:

• She hadn’t been dining there.
• They hadn’t been sleeping.
• I hadn’t been working hard.
• He hadn’t been playing soccer.

Using and identifying the past perfect continuous tense is easy with a little practice. If you’re interested in learning more about verb tenses, see how you can use the simple past tense in your writing.